Jerome, Commentarii in epistulas Pauli apostoli

The names of the patriarchs Valpert and Lupus emerging from the margins of this book prove its Friulian provenance.

This manuscript, nowadays kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, contains the Jeromian exegesis to two Paul’s epistles: to the Galatians and to Philemon. The manuscript dating to the last quarter of the ninth century is made possible by a note of the scribe himself on the lower margin of f. 108v: «Et dominus Walpertus patriarcha, qui pisces suos solus comedit ex nostra parte non inde […]». The undoubted reference to Valpert [Valperto], patriarch of Aquileia between 874 and 900 circa, is a precious element to establish the date and location of this codex, which are further confirmed by a note of a later hand on f. 124v, where reference is made to one Lupus without other qualifications: perhaps, also in this case, patriarch Lupus II [Lupo II], in charge between 940 and 948-949. In the fifteenth century the manuscript belonged to Guarnerio d’Artegna and subsequently, and uninterruptedly, to the ‘Biblioteca Guarneriana’ of San Daniele del Friuli. It got the way to France in 1797, when, in the month of September, it was confiscated by the French army together with other nine manuscripts.